- Washington Post - New York Times - L.A. Times- Miami Herald- WAN-IFRA- SIP- GDA and other professional organizations.- FundaMedios and other NGOs- Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression – Inter-American Commission on Human Rights- Reporters Without Borders and other professional associations- Diario Universo, Ecuavisa and Teleamazonas - And other organizations and think tanks that – through misinformation or deliberate political action – seek to disrupt the social development process in Ecuador, which places first and foremost freedom, dignity and respect for life.

Dear Sir or Madam:

We, the people of Ecuador, would like you and the whole world to have first-hand information on the profound development process which we have experienced in our country for the past five years, a process supported with hope and enthusiasm by more than 70% of our fellow citizens.

Under the leadership of President Rafael Correa Delgado we are building a new history of dignity, sovereignty, equality, respect and particularly freedom. A freedom that is today effective and fully acknowledged in our Constitution but above all supported for the first time in history by public policies which ensure material and institutional conditions that allow us to exercise the equal rights of all Ecuadorian people.

This is the real freedom that is expressed through universal health care and access to medicine at no cost; that we can see in the biggest transformation of infrastructure in Ecuador, not only its first-rate roads but also hydroelectric power stations, ports, airports and bridges that connect us. The genuine freedom that recognizes and protects the basic rights of minorities; that is evidenced in the millennium schools, in free and massive access to education, books, connectivity and school uniforms; a freedom captured in fair salaries, respect of labor rights and fulfillment of our social and fiscal obligation; and finally the freedom to become a society that aims to eradicate exclusion and underdevelopment in a country that is deeply committed to Human Rights and those of nature.

A country of freedom based on truth, which has reclaimed its national values and rebuilt its self-esteem, to look at the world with pride and say that this country – the one you call “a small country” or, even derogatorily “banana republic” – knows that it is now possible to dream of big things. Today we are building a motherland that is nobody´s back yard nor the puppet of hegemonic elites such as the corporate press in this country, that has never endeavored to inform the people, and that in fact, has simply built empires of lies, dishonesty and domination.

You talk about us without knowing us and you defend a local newspaper when you don´t live here. We do know the newspaper El Universo, a media empire with its assets hidden in a tax haven, that participate – through its influences with the State – in failed construction and telecommunication deals that were damaging for the country and allowed them to pocket money from millions of Ecuadorian people.

Indeed we know El Universo and we know what matters to them: money, power but never the truth! And you, in error or bad faith, defend your peers in the business of media failing to examine the reality of this country in greater detail. We want you to know that the millions of Ecuadorian people, united in an undivided spirit of our motherland, defend our image, our good name and the dignity of our sovereign nation.

It is wrong to analyze the current situation in Ecuador and our America from the current point of view of the United States. A much better framework of analysis would be to imagine the US in the context of the civil rights movement or even the actual freedom of slaves. The countries of Latin America are fighting for their freedom. Let´s learn from history. If you remember the role of the Southern press in the fight for civil rights, you will realize why governments, such as Ecuador that are making profound changes, are being confronted with the illegitimate political opposition of some press, who manipulate us in the name of freedom of expression.

Enough with the attempts to discredit our country and a process that is not convenient to their on-going economic and political quest. Enough with the division of the world between good and bad, heroes and villains, whether obedient or not to their plans.

Enough with attempts to overshadow and discredit a country, whose only sin was to shake off the cultural atavisms that kept it anchored in underdevelopment.

Today, Ecuador is a country that deeply loves life, practices the freedom of true expression that respects the human being, the dignity and the truth – a freedom of expression that protects the honor of all and is exercised with ultimate responsibility; a freedom of expression for dignity and not defamation, for construction and not destruction, for enlightenment, clarity and not distortion, intimidation and persecution.

In today´s Ecuador, with the greatest political stability in its history, the greatest economic growth of the last decades, the lowest unemployment rate in decades, the biggest reduction in poverty, with real freedom, more rights and better conditions of living for all, we are not living in a time of change, we are living to change the times, going from an ideal dreamed up by a few to a fair and supportive country dreamed up by all. From a country that used to give itself away to a country that no longer sells itself. From a country that kept quiet to a country that answers loud and clear.

We, the honest Ecuadorian people, the majority of the Ecuadorian people.